HHS HealthBeat (April 23, 2009)

More Workout, Less Weight Loss

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Here’s a research finding to ponder: Overweight women who worked out lost weight. No surprise there. Women who worked out harder lost more weight. But women who worked out the hardest lost only about as much as the women who did the least.

How can that be?

Tim Church of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana faced that question after a study he did while at the Cooper Institute in Texas.

Church suspects the hardest exercisers thought their workouts justified eating more – and overestimated how much.

He advises:

[Tim Church speaks] ``When you do perform large amounts of exercise, it’s not a carte blanche to eat whatever you want. You have to be conscientious of your caloric intake – if weight loss is your goal.’’

The study in the online journal PLoSONE was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011